Source apportionment of PM<Subscript>2.5</Subscript> in Tangshan, China—Hybrid approaches for primary and secondary species apportionment: Fid-Bau Portal

Source apportionment of PM2.5 in Tangshan, China—Hybrid approaches for primary and secondary species apportionment

Wen, Wei / Cheng, Shuiyuan / Liu, Lei / Wang, Gang / Wang, Xiaoqi

Abstract The objective of this paper is to propose a hybrid approach for the source apportionment of primary and secondary species of PM2.5 in the city of Tangshan. The receptor-based PMF (Positive Matrix Factorization) is integrated with the emission inventory (EI) to form the first hybrid method for the source apportionment of the primary species. The hybrid CAMx-PSAT-CP (Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions–Particulate Source Apportionment Technology–Chemical Profile) approach is then proposed and used for the source apportionment of the secondary species. The PM2.5 sources identified for Tangshan included the soil dust, the metallurgical industry, power plants, coalfired boilers, vehicles, cement production, and other sources. It is indicated that the PM2.5 pollution is a regional issue. Among all the identified sources, the metallurgy industry was the biggest contribution source to PM2.5, followed by coal-fired boilers, vehicles and soil dust. The other-source category plays a crucial role for PM2.5, particularly for the formation of secondary species and aerosols, and these other sources include non-specified sources such as agricultural activities, biomass combustion, residential emissions, etc. The source apportionment results could help the local authorities make sound policies and regulations to better protect the citizens from the local and regional PM2.5 pollution. The study also highlights the strength of utilizing the proposed hybrid approaches in the identification of PM2.5 sources. The techniques used in this study show considerable promise for further application to other regions as well as to identify other source categories of PM2.5.